October 31, 2012 -
Travel Outlook, the premier
hotel central reservations
service, has signed an agreement with Kennedy Training
Network (KTN) to
provide customized training workshops for its call center agents.
KTN training will be customized for each of Travel
Outlook's client hotels based on its market segment, property type, and
revenue
strategy. Travel Outlook has also hired
KTN to monitor results with its innovative “mystery shop” calls.
"We
really like the interactive nature of KTN's
training, which includes role playing and group exercises," said John
Smallwood, Travel Outlook CEO. "We believe that the KTN approach
provides our agents the right skills they'll need when answering calls
from
over-informed, multi-tasking callers who have looked at too many
choices
online."
Smallwood continues:
"KTN training helps our
agents use a more conversational sales style to engage callers,
inviting our team to use
descriptions that “allure and entice” instead of merely informing
clients of
rates and availability. We are eager to
put these concepts into practice immediately."
Earning a higher average daily rate is critical if a
hotels is to achieve its budgeted net operating income. Often,
voice reservations contribute up to
25% of a hotel's top line revenue, and many hotels have found that
adding an
effective voice reservations team to answer some or all of the incoming
reservations calls can ensure that hotels are not only
capturing the maximum revenue possible from
calls, but it also adds an additional opportunity to
provide excellent customer service.
|
John
Smallwood,
Travel Outlook CEO |
Travel Outlook connects directly to a hotel's property
management system, providing real time
access to a hotel's room inventory with no additional
booking fees. "In addition to
seeing substantial
increases in voice reservation conversions, our hotel
clients appreciate our enhanced reporting and that we interface
directly
with the systems they
currently use to manage revenue,” says Smallwood. "KTN will help
us to continue to improve
in all areas of service to our clients."
About Travel
Outlook:
Travel Outlook partners with
independent hotels, resorts and management
companies to
provide private label voice reservations, for most hotels on a
commission-only
basis. Travel Outlook hires staff with
hotel experience and focuses on best-of-breed service to its clients.
Its
mission is to enhance the service levels, revenues and profitability of
client
hotels by providing timely, gracious and informed assistance to
potential guests—resulting
in the industry’s best conversion of reservation inquiries.
www.traveloutlook.com